Title page for ETD etd-06122010-020309

Relationships between motivation and psychological distance in a forest recreation environment.

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Forestry and Forest Products

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name

Title

Buhyoff, Gregory J.

Committee Chair

More, Thomas A.

Committee Member

Sharik, Terry L.

Committee Member

Wellman, J. Douglas

Committee Member

Keywords

Outdoor recreation

Date of Defense

1977-08-05

Availability

restricted

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to field test a portion of the
recreation quality theory: a conceptual framework which seeks to
provide insight into the behavior of outdoor recreationists. Specifically,
the inverse relationship of two variables which may affect the
quality of outdoor recreation was examined. These were the force of
motivation and the psychological distance to the user's destination in a
recreation environment. Time spent hiking to the destination was
considered a function of force, and physical distance was considered a
function of the psychological distance to the destination.

It was hypothesized that people who were able to accurately
determine the distance remaining to the destination, as they were hiking
along the trail, would arrive sooner than those who could not accurately
determine the distance remaining to the destination. A map was used to
provide users with information about· distances. The hiking times for
109 visitor groups at the Cascades Nature Trail in the Jefferson National
Forest, Virginia were unobtrusively recorded between September 26 and
November 7, 1976.

Differences between the hiking times of groups were analyzed by
means of Wilcoxon's Rank Sum Test, the Ansari-Bradley Dispersion Test,
and the Moses Dispersion Test. The effects of changing environmental
conditions were assessed by means of the Kruskal-Wallis Test for
Multiple Comparisons, as well as by Wilcoxon's Rank Sum Test.
This study provided evidence that supports the hypothesis
proposed in the recreation quality theory, that an inverse relationship
exists between the force of motivation and the psychological distance
to a goal in a forested recreation environment.